There’s been so much in the news about over-the-top idiocy from Michigan Republicans lately that I thought I’d just put them all in one post. Over the past week or so, they’ve been trying to further degrade a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion and to corrupt our democracy by rigging the electoral system in favor of Republicans. But, sadly, they didn’t stop there.

In his outstanding piece for The Metro Times, Curt Guyette showed how, after four Emergency Managers and being under state control for six years, the Detroit Public Schools system is further in debt than ever. Still, the Snyder administration thought it would be a fine idea to give outgoing Emergency Manager Jack Martin $50,000 in bonuses. According to Department of Treasury spokesperson Terry Stanton, “While there were no particular benchmarks, Martin worked to stabilize enrollment, restored numerous programs at the elementary and middle school levels, redesigned career tech programs and sold or leased numerous unused or vacant properties which generated millions of dollars for the district.” The statement is ironic because this bit in the same article:

Critics point out that the district’s ongoing deficit shot up [from roughly $82 million] to nearly $170 million under Martin — something the former emergency manager has attributed to several factors, including declining enrollment, a reduction in federal funding and a failed countywide school millage. The district had built expected revenue from the millage into its budget.

So, he got the bonuses in part because he “stabilized enrollment” but Martin himself defends the over doubling of the district’s deficit by blaming “declining enrollment”. The mind, it boggles.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lon Johnson blasted the bonuses:

Handing out a massive $50,000 bonus to a failing political appointee at Detroit Public Schools isn’t the first time the Snyder administration has gotten caught handing out taxpayer-funded bonuses, raises and questionable payroll practices. These practices have no place in state government, let alone at a time of budget cuts, struggling schools and deteriorating roads.

Things have gotten so bad that even Emergency Management apologist and conservative editorial page director Nolan Finley has jumped ship:

Darnell Earley has a plan. Robert Bobb had one, too. So did Roy Roberts. And Jack Martin.

Earley and his three predecessors as emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools all had the formula for fixing the district’s financial mess and turning the focus on delivering a quality education to the city’s cheated children.

And yet here we are, starting over for the fourth time in six years with a new man with a new plan.

This has moved beyond the borders of absurd. It’s a travesty. The school district and the schools are no closer to functionality than they were when state oversight began.

Boom goes the dynamite, as the kids say.

STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL BILL SCHUETTE SUBPOENAS JOURNALISTS’ NOTES ON TREATMENT OF JUVENILE INMATES THEN CHANGES HIS MIND

In a move that has baffled commentators across the country, Michigan’s notoriously bad Attorney General Bill Schuette decided to subpoena the notes and audio & visual recordings taken by two journalists – Dana Liebelson of the Huffington Post and Michigan Radio’s Cynthia Canty – while investigating the treatment of juvenile inmates held in Michigan detention facilities.

I have an announcement: Last week, during a reporting trip on juvenile prison conditions, I was served 2 subpoenas by Michigan's AG office.

— Dana Liebelson (@dliebelson) March 9, 2015

A rep for Michigan's AG followed me 2 hours across the state to deliver the second subpoena. It was intimidating. pic.twitter.com/PawyZgXj0a

— Dana Liebelson (@dliebelson) March 9, 2015

After a fierce firestorm of criticism for interfering with journalists doing their job, Schuette then changed his mind:

Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office demonstrated poor judgment — and a troubling ignorance of well-settled state law — when it twice subpoenaed the notes of a reporter in the process of interviewing juvenile inmates last week at facilities run by the state Department of Corrections.

The AG withdrew both subpoenas Monday afternoon just hours after the targeted reporter, Dana Liebelson of the Huffington Post, disclosed them in a Twitter post. Schuette’s office also canceled a third subpoena in which investigators demanded that Michigan Radio’s Cynthia Canty turn over “complete and unedited” audio and video recordings of her March 3 interview with an Ann Arbor attorney representing inmates who are suing the state for alleged sexual and physical abuse they sustained as juveniles.

The prompt course correction spared Schuette’s subordinates an embarrassing reversal in court, where any judge familiar with the applicable Michigan law likely would have quashed the subpoenas on the spot.

Schuette apparently blamed a staffer:

Wow. NICE JOB EVERYONE. pic.twitter.com/iTkAlCk1Sm

— Dana Liebelson (@dliebelson) March 9, 2015

This is the man Republicans are pinning their hopes on to take over as Governor when Rick Snyder’s term ends. Again, the mind, it boggles.

DAVE AGEMA BACK IN THE NEWS FOR … BEING DAVE AGEMA

One of the only people to give Bill Schuette a run for his money in the category of Biggest Bigot in the State, Dave Agema, is back in the news for doing what he does best: being Dave Agema. This time, he posted yet another Facebook post that is intentionally inflammatory, this time spewing weirdness regarding his opinion about President Obama’s ethnicity:

Somewhat hilariously, Agema’s percentages add up to 100.1%. Oh, and it is, as usual, completely racist, as well. Congratulations, Michigan Republicans. Until you shake this parasite off your hide like a dog trying to shake of blood-sucking fleas, you own this.

GAMRAT AND COURSER SEEK TO BAN ABORTIONS IN MICHIGAN

Extremist Republicans Cindy Gamrat and Todd Courser, along with fellow extremists Thomas Hooker, Gary Glenn, Tim Kelly, Ken Goike, have introduced legislation – HB 4279 – that will ban abortions in Michigan. As Gamrat put it in her press release, the legislation, called the “Life at Conception Bill” would “extend the full protections and rights enjoyed by Michigan citizens to the unborn”. It is, of course, unconstitutional given the reality of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision but that isn’t stopping Gamrat and a reported 22 co-sponsors from supporting it. The irony is how often Gamrat, Courser, and their fellow tea partiers genuflect before the Constitution of the United States of America. Apparently they feel empowered to interpret it for themselves and the Supreme Court is unnecessary.

GAMRAT AND COURSER SEEK TO CHANGE HOW ELECTORAL VOTES ARE AWARDED IN MICHIGAN. AGAIN.

Gamrat and Courser, again along with Thomas Hooker and Gary Glenn, have rekindled a move that unceremoniously died in the 2014 lame duck session to pervert how Michigan awards its electoral votes in presidential elections. We have been a winner-takes-all state since forever but now these Republicans want to solidify their successful gerrymandering of our Congressional Districts by assigning one electoral vote per district with only two of the 16 electoral votes being decided by the winner-takes-all method. While they have won a presidential election in Michigan since the late 90s, Republicans have managed to take control of nine of our Congressional Districts through gerrymandering. The bill is HB 4310.